


each kiss to lip and cheek

by lidiyuh



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst and Romance, F/M, Gen, One Shot, Romance, Sad, Short One Shot, asra being asra lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 08:03:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18687439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lidiyuh/pseuds/lidiyuh
Summary: He is like the ocean waves, forever receding just as far inshore he comes, and she is left standing in the sand without his touch.





	each kiss to lip and cheek

**Author's Note:**

> big thank you to alizardjae for editing this for me!

             He left in the middle of the night again. Gone while she was sleeping, out the door like a ghost.

          She supposed, she mused when she woke the next morning, that she should feel hurt by this—the way she used to, at least. When her heart would ache so much it would leave her bedridden for days, food somehow appearing by her pillow when she had the energy to wake, and her skin pale by the time she could drag herself outside again. But her heart no longer held out for him like that anymore, not the way it used to, anyway.

          It felt programmed at that point. The coming, the going, the too small words and the spaces too big to be filled by them. Asra did as he pleased with no consideration of her heart. She was too tired to let him see it anymore.

          And so, he left without a trace. And she was left with nothing but a dusty, crumbling shop.

          The sun rose and set that day, and for many days after that. She counted close to forty that passed before he made a reappearance on her doorstep, his skin freshly tanned and curly hair hanging down by his shoulders. Cheap apologies and expensive gifts were presented as she took a dull knife to the overgrown locks, but she deflected both until he stilled her wrist with her own when the last locket of hair had fallen to the ground.

          “I truly am sorry,” he whispered, reaching up to gently touch her cheek. “I hate leaving you here all alone.”

          “You were gone for a long time,” she murmured in response, pulling her face away. “Longer than usual. If you hate leaving, then why do you go?”

          His hand dropped uselessly to lap. “I must, love. It’s... difficult to be here for so long.”

          That heart she kept so hidden began to thud with pain, and she moved away to begin cleaning the clippings.

          “That’s…not how I meant it,” he said. “You know that.”

          “I’m not sure _what_ you meant;you say you’ll be gone for a week then come back almost two moons later,” she says as she stands up. With a shuddering breath, she turns to look him in the eye. “I’m not sure what you meant, especially when you disappear from my bed without warning.” He looks at her like she drove a dagger through his heart, but she turns away.

          “I don’t do it to hurt you.”

          “But you do hurt me,” she tells him with finality. “And I would appreciate it if you found your own bed to lie in tonight, my darling. Not my borrowed one. Not until you can separate your truths from your lies.”

          She leaves the room then, not bothering to look back even when she swears she hears his heart crack alongside hers.


End file.
